Report: Renesas closes in on cash for cuts

LONDON – Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric, two of the three major shareholders in struggling Japanese chip company Renesas Electronics Corp., have agreed in principle to provide a support package worth 50 billion yen (about $630 million), according to a Reuters report that referenced unnamed sources.

However, Renesas is thought to need about $1.3 billion to implement its plan to cut about 30 percent of its staff and close more than half its domestic factories. NEC, the third and largest shareholder, is unable to contribute with loans as it is struggling with the implementation of its own turn-around plan, the report said.

Renesas would be able to gain an additional line of credit worth 50 billion yen (about $630 million) from its banks, the report said. The main stumbling block at the moment would appear to be reaching agreement on a bail-out package that is equitable between the three major shareholders.

KKR and Silverlake were part of a consortium that paid 6.4 billion euro (about $8 billion) for an 80 percent stake in chip company NXP as it was spun out of Koninklijke Philips Electronics NV (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) in 2006. In 2009 their holding was written down to just 10 percent of its original value.

It is so bad to hear Renesas to end up in such bad situation. I have only used Renesas's MOSFET but not other products so I can't really comment on how good the company has positioned itself. But from the MOSFET technology, I think Renesas is doing quite good (delivery is another issue). Mabye they really have some problem in operation. I hope they can overcome the situation.

There is just too many products esp MCU in Renesas. Although every of these MCU cores are great in various fields (inherit from H,M,& N), there is just too much! Create complication in logistic, supporting personel, and even customers! With the closing of so many fabs and removal of so many staffs (which maybe SOC related). Can Renesas still maintain its MCU market share? How is the raised fund be used for? any clear MCU strategy? or is this just another cost cutting measure that was done years ago? Renesas will really need to walk OUT and seek some creative ideas.

In reality, the US$1.3B are like "good money thrown into dark holes". Significant portion (1/3?) will go to buy off thousands of employees in Japan for their early retirement. A sizeable portion of the rest will be used to close the fabs and to pay off the debt. The reamining sizable portion will be used by the incompetent managers like Ali Sebt (CEO of Renesas America), Akao (CEO of Renesas), and others to keep their interests and consensus. Under their rein in the last 5 to 10 years, Renesas kept shrinking. Yet these incompetent managers kept being rewarded while more and more rank & file workers were laid off. If I were those investors who put up the $1.3B, I will ask these managers to let me keep the deeds of their personal properties. As such, these managers will be motivated to do the right things for shareholders, the future of the Renesas, the employees and the customers :)

Japan culture! top management survive, those that go against the flow will go. if something did go wrong, then the only very top guy will bear the blame. Had these CEOs got enough time to prove themselves? so far, there is only deterioration. Management team has been growing bigger everywhere, and still enjoying entertainment and business class treatment. When the last breakout news that global employee will have a 7.5% cut and freeze bonuses, it just show that the top just want to have easy financial calculation. Why not reduce entertainment, and cut only the GM or even manager and above? and CEOs shall lead by taking no $ till the company turn around!Global non-management employee had already been going through all kind of hardship at this economic state! Let see what the company proposal will be in July...

The microcontroller portfolio at Renesas is the biggest joke in the industry. When Renesas Technology merged (in practice, acquired) NEC Electronics, they kept all the 6 proprietary microcontroller architectures. No lay-off any of the indian chiefs and elimination of architectures. On top, it had to offer the ARM-based (and MIPS-based) microcontrollers as either ASICs or for specific customers. As a result, it is a very bloated operation. The automotive market will not stay with Renesas for very long, as there are other viable vendors with more visible finance and organizational structures. Again, if I was the investors who will put up the funding into this failing behemoth, I will demand immedate accountability from all the top management there. After all, in a failing business entity, the top management are less venerable than the rank & file workers. In my humble and opinion, we should protect the interest of the thousands of familes (rank & file) and the investors, but not the top management whose have done nothing but screwing the company to ground over the years!

Just "Automotive MCU" will kill the company too. This will take too long to achieve business . A company should have a well spread of products to leverage on.
When I said well spread, i don't mean many different MCU core!!! but some good MCU + Power electronics + maybe SOC + ...Profit Margin is getting thinner. If you have only 1 product to sell to a customer PCB, this will made the sales much tougher. If Renesas is going to become a PURE MCU company, I will just have to say - Good Luck! This is just an mis-understanding of the marketing word - FOCUS.